A CCT Shop Tour With The Father Of Fuel Injection - Tech

Remember those special days in school, when everyone crammed into buses to take a field trip perhaps to a museum or a concert? Learning new things this way was easy. You were on vacation from the boring classroom and discovering new things about the world around you. Maybe you met grownups who were excited about work and enjoying their jobs, like energetic kids in adult bodies happy in their careers.

Last September, CCT's shop tour of Hilborn Fuel Injection Engineering was like taking a field trip. Like Merlin the Magician in Camelot, Hilborn's founder, Stu Hilborn, is a youthful 87, and his life's work has him growing younger by the day. Aside from going golfing every Thursday, Stu can be found during work days at play in his shop in Aliso Viejo, California, helping to keep the vintage appeal and high performance of Hilborn Fuel Injection Engineering powering race cars, muscle machines, and hot rods into the next millennium. Stu has been in the business of instantaneous, reliable fuel-throttle response for over 54 years.

Born in Sylvan Lake, Canada, in 1917, Stu Hilborn was eight when his family moved to Pasadena, then settled in the La Brea/Washington Street area of Los Angeles. After graduating from L.A. City College in chemistry, Stu landed a job with the General Paint Company as a paint chemist. A friend introduced him to dry lakes racing at Muroc Lake in the late 1930s. One visit to Muroc, and he was hooked. Duesenberg racer Eddie Miller Sr. lived nearby and Stu and Eddie Miller Jr. became fast friends. Recognizing what a rabid interest Stu had in racing, Eddie Sr. mentored Stu in both the nuances of piloting a racecar and building engines, modified chassis, and fast cars.

Eddie Sr. had created an innovative intake manifold with four large single-barrel Stromberg carbs, each feeding two cylinders of the Ford flathead V-8 that powered Stu's dry lakes streamliner. With the racecar, Stu went as fast as 146 mph in 1947. One of his problems was running methanol through the pot-metal carburetors. The fuel corroded the cheap metal, clogging the carbs' jets, thus starving the engine of fuel. Also, the carbs weren't able to distribute an equal air/fuel mix to each cylinder.

Stu enlisted and served in WWII. While he was away, he contemplated how he might craft a fuel-injection system that might evenly distribute fuel and air to each cylinder. Being timed injection systems, other fuel-injection units of the era didn't work reliably, since they were turning off the flow of fuel with each revolution of the camshaft. Stu sought to flow fuel and air continuously to each cylinder. By chamfering the fuel-injection nozzles like an ice-cream cone, Stu overcame his biggest obstacle, an even rate of fuel and air to each cylinder.

Despite skepticism from his peers, Mr. Hilborn displayed his untested prototype at a SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) SEMA-like hot-rod show, which commemorated the first 10 years of hot rodding (1938-1948). Later in 1948, Stu's first test of the fuel-injection system was a complete success. His streamliner fired on the first attempt and attained a speed of 120 mph at Muroc, before shutdown. His test was held on the deserted lake and Stu didn't wish to tempt fate without an ambulance on hand. On July 18 that year, friend and fellow SCTA member Howie Wilson drove the Hilborn fuel-injected streamliner to the highest speed ever achieved at the lakes, an astounding 150 mph. This was a Miller Sr. V-8 powered and Miller Jr. body and chassis creation.

In 1948, still a 20-something bachelor, Stu took a chance, quit his job, and began building and selling fuel-injection systems. He began by providing systems for midget racecars. Fellow mechanics, racers, and hot rodders didn't think you could keep the fuel flowing nonstop without problems cropping up. But, as more and more racers began to win with Hilborn-equipped engines, the tides began to turn. At the Indy 500 in 1949, six cars that made the race field qualified with the same Hilborn fuel-injection system, which was swapped from car to car. By 1950, Mauri Rose finished a respectable third with a Hilborn-equipped car. By 1951, 18 Hilborn-injected cars raced at Indy, with six of them finishing in the top 10. Since 1951, Carburetion Day at Indy no longer has literal meaning, as Hilborn fuel-injection systems have powered Indy 500 winners 34 times.

To this day, Hilborn Fuel Injection Engineering systems, both mechanical and EFI, are powering racecars and enthusiasts' hot rods. Stu's twin daughter and son, Edris and Duane, work in the family business. What's more, professional photographer and Edris' husband, Dan Snipes, has his studio within the adjoining building. With good reason, he does all Hilborn's product photography. Doing what you're passionate about and being surrounded by those you love are two ingredients the Hilborns and Snipes use to combat the passage of time, and in Stu's case, the onset of young age.